The history of this blog is ...
It started as a diary of starting my own public relations agency - POP! Public Relations.
I changed it to Jots and commentary, opinions and views on PR, publicity and issues therein.
And now, it's about public relations and social media and the hope for change, moving forward with and within the industries.

Wednesday, August 01, 2007

Streams of consciousness at BlogHer

For BlogHer this year, I am just going to keep open one blog post on quotes and comments that resonate with me. When I, um, remember to type them out and not just listen (hence, the post not as long as it could be).

Why? Well, it is easier than live blogging each session, and streams of consciousness are just fun.

And, well, BlogHer is such a community event, there are tons of posts on the BlogHer site itself and via the BlogHer07 tag.

Went from feeling like I had no friends out there, from having hundreds of friends through blogs and blogging.

I orgasm while walking on my treadmill.

The difference between blogging and the real world is that there is a casual intimacy that people develop on blogs, where you share information you wouldn't necessarily share with your neighbor.

The event has made it possible to meet the people that we have read, to experience the person and to get excited meeting the people, and finding new blogs.

There is the problem with the community continuing to grow, and yet still feel like a close-knit community. The momosphere is going to split, but it is natural that there will be further divisions. There is always discussion, and how we all feel.

It's hard not to take something personal in the blogosphere - we are writing about ourselves, and it IS personal.

With outreach to bloggers, why such the concentration on white bloggers, with ignoring the minority blogs - the Asian blogs, the African-American blogs? We do laundry, we use products.

We are empowered when we write about our children, and we empower those that don't have voices - such as special needs children - when we write about the issues.

The culinary profession is not very technology oriented - we know that there's this Internet thing, but we are not using it much. Blogging has gotten me a different audience that shares my views and love for minutiae in cooking.

The surprising thing about my blog is that I have people reaching out to me for authentic Indian food to cook for their adopted children; it's touching, and it makes me tear up thinking how the power of blogging has touched other people.

Only you control your blog, only you control the content. And with that comes responsibility. Guard yourself, guard your blog, guard you readers.

I have found my blog posts and photos used on a corporate site, used as marketing. You have to be vigilant on what you write, and where it may end up.

We have power - we have way more power than we think we do. We have power. If you chose to use it to close a restaurant, or slam or uplift somebody, we have that power. There are too many restaurant/food bloggers that are just snarky and cruel for no other reason to be snarky, and hurt the restaurant.

Don't ask for reciprocal links - these are my recommendations, and I put trust in those blogroll.

Organically, more and more people find something similar to what they see online. One post will have more connections, and other people will want to follow and try the same. It's about making things, and tips.

You charge for your talent, not the costs of the goods. For crafts, it is about the talent and work you put into the product, not just the materials.

Stick googly-eyes on everything.

There are no fail-safes to keep your designs from being copied, but you have to be vigilant to make sure that your stuff is safe. Creative Commons is one way to go, for some protection.

About Me

Using Usenet and online enthusiast sites - now called blogs or social networks - for campaigns when he started, Pepper incorporates online tactics to traditional strategies. Pepper has worked with a who's who of Fortune 500 companies, ranging from consumer tech to consumer packaged goods to high tech, providing integrated communications counsel to such companies as Kodak, Clorox, Cisco, GM, Mobile 1, HP, Verizon Wireless, Sprint, Campbell's Soup, amongst others.

Pepper began his blog more than 8 years ago, and continues to be an early adopter of social media, understanding how it works in the real-world.

In his spare time, Pepper enjoys yoga, Pilates and boxing, can be found eating PB&J sandwiches or hamburgers and is the lone figure walking in LA.